Loved the High on the Hog TV show, so emotional and well-researched. Definitely adding this to my list!
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I didn’t know there was a show?!!!?!
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WHY WAS THIS NOT SUGGESTED TO ME BY NETFLIX?
I will never understand Netflix’s suggestions.
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Favorite chocolate chip based (but not chocolate chip cookie) recipe?
Sprinkle them on ice cream?
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Good idea but I don’t have any! And I want to bake. Maybe I will just make chocolate chip cookies, lol, IDK why I’m fighting it. I feel like I should try something new.
ETA: I’m going to make these!
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Next time, maybe muffins?
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Put them in pumpkin or zucchini muffins. Or banana bread.
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You guys, I made the BEST soup last night.
I used a combo of the garden tomatoes I had on hand - some cherry tomatoes, at least 1 Cherokee purple, and a bunch of sungolds and yellow pear tomatoes. It did not need the tomato paste (didn’t have any so I omitted).
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Oooo, I loooove tomato soup. Bookmarked!
I buy tomatoes in bulk every year. This year it was 40 lbs worth. I freeze quarts of unseasoned “tomato sauce” and use that as a base for anything tomatoey: soup, stew, spaghetti, lasagna, etc.
We use a lot of tomatoes, but I buy very little processed tomatoes these days because the varieties that are commercially available set off my stomach. Most processed foods set off my stomach these days. The older I get, the more that’s true.
Since I grew up with PTSD, an anxiety disorder, I’ve had stomach issues since I was 16. The older I get the fussier my stomach gets. If I could still use commercial tomatoes, I’d be right there with you. In fact, for decades I was…
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I think tomatoes are the thing I rely on most in the canned food section. I also buy canned beans but I don’t eat the sheer quantity of them that I do the tomatoes and I use plenty of dried. How do you arrange these bulk tomato purchases? I imagine they taste much better than commercial canned variety. I don’t have the freezer space for it right now because I use that for meat and seafood (I am picky about where I buy what) but I’d like to have a deep freezer someday.
Haven’t. Thanks for the recommendation!
I asked a local farm manager of a CSA where we were if he could sell me onions in bulk a couple of years ago. He suggested another farm, about 40 minutes south, that sells a lot to restaurants, has a farm stand, PYO of certain crops and sells bulk quantities to the public.
The farm stand where I worked for a while did it too. They didn’t give the great deals I’m getting now, but it wasn’t retail prices either. People used them for canning tomatoes, succotash, and one guy bought 50 gallons of their cider to freeze and turn into apple jack. (It was a lot of cider!) I’d be buying from that stand except we didn’t part on good terms and they aren’t organic, and I know that they only discount around 20-30% or used to.
My suggestion would be to maybe look at pick your own farms and ask them? Here’s a link to the PYO directory. (Both farms, the one I go to now and the one I worked for did limited PYO.)
The directory lists US and other countries. Scroll down the page for out of the US information.
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Thank you! That’s very helpful and I’ll check out the link. We live in a city but we’re about an hour from some farming areas so this type of thing may be perfect.
ETA: Wow! Just found this already!
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One thing I’d do, if you’re going the first time to talk to someone and possibly buy, take CASH. The farm where I get the bulk these days needs preorders. I offered to use a credit card, cash, check, whichever they wanted. Their response was we take all of them.
If you make arrangements to pick up/pay for a 25# bag of carrots on x day, make sure if you can’t make it you give them as much warning as possible. Some produce markets, from what I understand only take commercial checks, plastic or cash.
Information about buying in bulk can be found in the Frugal Zealot books a little (I think? Been years…) and in Jill Bond’s MegaCooking. Most of what I know I got from Bond’s book. I prefer her book to Once a Month Cooking for a few reasons: 1) She scales up/down her recipes, much easier for this household of 2! 2)She has comments by other people who’ve tried the recipes, so you get some ideas of what else might work or not. 3)She has hints for how to handle all the food in the most efficient way. 4)She used a lot more fresh and a lot less prefab ingredients.
When I got the book, I wasn’t sure I’d ever use it. Then when I looked at it in detail, I was pretty sure it was a waste, as I rarely really like other’s recipes. However, I kept it for the kitchen efficiency discussion. Then one day I thought, “If I can process 50# of onions at a job (did that working in a cafeteria) why couldn’t I do that here too?” And I grabbed the Bond book to see what she said about buying in bulk and processing same…
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@NewGig Thank you for all the great info! I’ll be looking into these resource to see what I can utilize now (in an apartment) and what I might be able to take advantage of when we buy a place with more storage.
I just made this recipe and I have some notes!
Overall I recommend it! I used a lot more garlic (like 10 cloves). The other thing I did was mixed the panko breadcrumbs with flour and dried parsley and onion powder. I also flavored the egg wash with paprika, which I think makes a big difference. I didn’t do the chicken in a pan either, I find that method onerous for breaded things so I baked the chicken on a rack over a pan at 350 for 30 minutes and it was perfect. Kind of proud because I also boned and skinned the thighs since mine were skin-on and bone in! I was pretty quick by the last two! For the alfredo I added 1.5 times the amount of lemon the recipe calls for and I honestly think it was perfect, it wasn’t too lemony. I added an extra 1/4 cup of parmesan at the very end too. Initially the alfredo was pretty thin (but spot on flavor!) but of course once it cooled a little it thickened.
I served it with a side salad of cucumber, tomato, and mint and I invented a great little salad dressing that I’ll definitely use again. Olive oil, red wine vinegar, green za’atar, honey, and salt. It’s. So. Good. I’m serious, try this salad dressing combo.
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I make a roasted red pepper soup as a substitute for tomato soup mid winter. Also, the tomatoes I buy are non-red “heirloom,” not what’s in the market or canned. I can’t eat those.
PER PERSON: about 2 bell peppers (for us it’s a minimum of 3 large peppers for 2 people). Cut them in 1/2, remove the seeds/strings,and roast them. Then remove the blackened skins and chop into largish pieces. Saute 1/4 onion, chopped in a little oil. add the peppers. Add about 2C broth. (I use Better than Bullion chicken.) Cook until the flavors blend, about 15 minutes or so. I buzz part of it as we like it with some small chunks. If you don’t have a stick blender or just want less mess, cut the peppers to bite size after they’re roasted and omit the buzzing. I don’t cook with salt and pepper as my husband likes a lot more pepper than I do and I like a lot more salt than he does. The simple answer was that we season our own at the table.
Serve with grated parmesan, if you have it. If you’re into being fawncy, you can run it under the broiler til the cheese just browns.
The recipe I started with had celery, beans, and a lot of other ingredients. I’ll post that if there’s interest. But this is what we eat most of the time. It’s “tomato soup” without tomatoes.
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